The more Canada is learning today about Danielle Smith's Alberta Referendum Lite, the more we hate it.
Not only will it screw up the international and national investments Canada needs to maintain Elbows Up, it also makes us a target for American interference in our democracy and economy. Canada doesn't need this investment-killing selfishness, and particularly we don't need it right now.
The Alberta NDP know which side they're on:View on Threads
Far be it for me to ever think that this is the only reason the CPC and Poilievre are against Alberta separatism...
Pierre Poilievre just realized that without Alberta, the CPC would never win another federal election ever again. #ABPoli #ABleg #CanPoli www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
— killerwhaletank 🍁 (@shaner38.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 12:41 PM
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But after going along with years of "Canada is broken" rhetoric, the CPC just can't stop feeling hard done by...If you want to know exactly how damaging the last few weeks worth of #AlbertaSeparatism debacles have been, Pierre just found the courage to speak up about it. #abpoli #cdnpoli #Poilievre
— TheGentYYC (@thegentyyc.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 2:50 PM
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Hold on, hold on. Weren't we just assured by Pierre Poilievre that his Alberta MPs would be fighting the separatist threat in Alberta? Because...this is just adding fuel to their fire. #abpoli #cdnpoli
— Max Fawcett (@maxfawcett.bsky.social) May 22, 2026 at 9:34 PM
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And Smith just can't stop herself from finding more grievances to complain about:
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Some comments from Albertans:
This is Rakhi Pancholi, NDP Deputy Leader and MLA from Edmonton-Whitemud.
In The Line, Jen Gerson is PISSED!
...This is the consequence of more than 20 years of dysfunctional conservative politics in this province. For generations, conservatives here have played a game of regional grievance, portraying the province’s resource sector as forever victimized by Ottawa and other provinces like B.C. and Quebec. And, boy-o, the rest of Canada has played right back, making economic expansion near impossible and demonstrating contempt and indifference for the province that keeps the bills paid and the GDP afloat.Gerson was also interviewed today: In What now?!? An Alberta Politics newsletter, Lisa Young writes
It’s a terminal cycle that pits region against region for the benefit of those who seek to rule by division and outrage.
Separatism is the inevitable outcome of that strategy left unchained, feral, and unfed in the yard. It is fuelled by very legitimate frustrations and grievances — but also by grandiosity, fantasy, and nihilism.
This is not an organic grassroots movement.
With a few exceptions, separatist leaders aren’t just ordinary people. They’re conservative elites who play themselves off as grassroots victims of that toxic dynamic between oil country and The Rest; they’re wealthy lawyers, local business bosses, political power brokers, academic enablers, and media gatekeepers. They operate by exploiting the alienated, the frustrated, the angry, and the insane in order to inch themselves one rung further up a sinking chain.
And this incestuous little crew, regardless of how the vote goes, they are going to make out like bandits. Let me tell you, none of these separatists leaders or their enablers care one whit what happens to house prices or the Albertan economy or the enmity or hatred that will be fomented as a result of the chaos they are courting.
These local elites have given no consideration to the risks or impacts of foreign interference. They have no serious plan for what happens if a referendum vote succeeds — or fails. They don’t give a shit. They’ll get theirs — the connections they’re building, the profile they’ll build, the email lists they’re creating, the money they’ll raise through crowdfunding. All of it will roll right next into the next cause, and the one after that. Yeehaw.
.... what was missing from Smith’s address. Where was the call to guard against malign foreign interference in the referendum campaign? Where was the call to ensure that this was a decision made by Albertans without any inducement by foreign governments? Where was the call to be sure activists on both sides respected the rule of law and protected the privacy of Albertans? Where was the call to be respectful of the treaty rights of Indigenous people?From historian Craig Baird
Nowhere to be found.
And this speaks to the asymmetry of Smith’s view of the province. Federalists should be on their best behaviour, and devote themselves to advocating for firearms policy that might win over their separatist neighbours. Separatists should just let it all hang out, because they’ve had to endure years of Trudeau, and so the rules simply don’t apply to them.
The coming months have the potential to damage the fabric of Alberta society. We need our leaders to demand the best of everyone involved in the conversation.
In Decoding Politics, U of A professor Jared Wesley writes
....For months, Smith has tried to frame the still-looming separation referendum as an unavoidable expression of grassroots democratic pressure. Her strategy has been to turn the vote into something organically and procedurally inevitable.Some comments from the rest of Canada:
It is none of those things.
Smith isn’t just removing barricades blocking a separatist referendum. She's widened the highway. Her government lowered the signature thresholds required for a successful petition, extended the time allowed to gather signatures, and even attempted to shield the petition process from judicial review.
A leader does not go to those lengths unless she really wants to see a vote...
From Tom Mulcair, on Quebec radio:
TL, DL (too long, didn't listen): Mulcair compares the events in Alberta with previous referendums in Quebec, noting that Smith doesn't understand how awful referendums are for the economy. She is just playing political games to save her own career.
From Arlene's Substack, Arlene Dickinson writes
...Her timing is either diabolical or reckless I don’t know which. Canada’s at a genuinely important moment. We’re building something real with national pride, pipelines, economic resilience, sovereignty in the face of real external pressure. And now we’re being dragged backwards by one politician who needs to keep her base happy enough to stay in power. That’s a selfish, power hungry move by her that’s on another level."I never thought the leopards would eat MY face" sobbed the woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party
But perhaps the most revealing moment tonight wasn’t about separation at all. It was her vision of provincial power. She clearly wants to diminish the federal government’s power and leave provinces unfettered, each going their own way. She wants the glory of running a province without rules, while keeping a big brother around for protection when it suits her. That’s not a federation. In her world we’d be a collection of territories that are only as valuables as the resources beneath each of them. Every province for themselves. Good luck if you live somewhere with less to sell or need something more. It hollows out everything that makes our country worth belonging to
This is such a betrayal. Of Albertans. Of Indigenous peoples. Of every Canadian who believes this country’s worth fighting for. She lit this fire and watched it spread.
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I'll bet Calgary and Edmonton companies are already scouting commercial real estate in Vancouver or Winnipeg as we speak...
And about the interference Canada can expect from Trump and his MAGA minions, here is a comment from Jason Kenny last month:
In his National Security and Intellegence Newsletter, Wesley Wark concludes:
In his National Security and Intellegence Newsletter, Wesley Wark concludes:
...What is in store for Alberta over the next five months? A bruising political battle that will only add uncertainty to the future of Alberta and its economy. Alberta is deeply vulnerable to tides of misinformation and disinformation, already at play, and fundamentally lacks defences against foreign interference in the referendum process, unless it is prepared to reach out to the federal government and the security and intelligence community for assistance in monitoring and responding to foreign interference threats. But to do that the Smith government would first have to take the threat seriously.Well, I guess we might as well laugh:
The lesson learned the hard way from foreign interference in electoral processes over the past decade—starting with Russian interference in the US presidential election in 2016—is that the best defence is an ability to issue non-partisan, objective and authoritative warnings to citizens about foreign interference threats. Those warnings can be danger signals or “all clear.” That’s the way to build either reassurance and confidence, or resilience to attacks on what has been called “cognitive sovereignty.”
Alberta has no such capacity and shows no signs of understanding the need for one. Of course, any such foreign interference will be directed at trying to tip referendum voters towards the separatist agenda, not in favour of remaining within Canada. Nothing to gain there.
Alberta separatists trying to become a landlocked independent state surrounded by Canadians who would have zero sympathy for them and an American state that would want to beat them into submission as a client-state is one of the funniest bad ideas in all of recorded history.
— Scott Barber (@thescottbarber) May 22, 2026
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